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Canadians had a special place in their hearts for Arkansas musician and singer Levon Helm, who died Thursday in a New York hospital after a decade-long battle with cancer.

Helm, 71, was the only non-Canadian member of The Band, the groundbreaking 1970s roots rock ensemble that took a generation by storm when Bob Dylan chose them to back his controversial move from acoustic folk to rock ’n’ roll in 1965.

“He had a wonderful sense of home and family,” said Colin Linden, Toronto guitarist, producer and singer, and a musical trail mate of Helm’s since 1988.

“But he was fascinated with the stories he found in other places and he found his own sense of romance in Canada.”

Helm had apparently made a remarkable recovery from throat cancer surgery and treatment in the late 1990s, but his wife, Sandy, and daughter, Amy, posted last weekend that he was in the “final stage.”

Robbie Robertson, The Band’s guitarist and songwriter, who was estranged from Helm for many years over song credit and royalty disputes, made arrangements to see Helm in hospital on Sunday.

“I sat with Levon for a good while, and thought of the incredible and beautiful times we had together.

“Levon is one of the most extraordinary talented people I’ve ever known and very much like an older brother to me. I am so grateful I got to see him one last time, and will miss him and love him forever.”

Terry Wilkins, a Toronto-based Australian expat bass player who played several gigs with Helm in 2002, calls him “the best drummer I’ve ever heard and an inspiration to every drummer who came after him.”

Helm last appeared in Toronto last July, opening for John Fogerty at York University's Rexall Centre during the BlackCreek Summer Music Festival.

Helm first made a home in Toronto in the early 1960s with fellow Arkansasian Ronnie Hawkins, a regional rockabilly star in the U.S. who is credited with having brought rock ’n’ roll to Canada.

Helm was the drummer in Hawkins’ band The Hawks. It eventually reeled in teenaged blues guitarist Robbie Robertson, singer/pianist Richard Manuel, bassist Rick Danko and keyboard virtuoso Garth Hudson, all from Ontario, and for a time ruled the all-age rock bars on Yonge St.

“Levon was my right arm, my left arm and both of my legs,” Hawkins, 77, said Thursday from his home in Peterborough, Ont.

“He got into my band in 1957 through our first guitar player, Jimmy Ray Paulman, who knew more songs than either of us.

“Levon was the best rhythm man I’ve ever seen,” Hawkins said. “He had no schooling in music, but he already had a reputation by the time he started with me.

“He was a jokester, too. He laughed at everything. And it wasn’t long before he was running the band.”

After quitting Hawkins to join Dylan, The Band subsequently established itself as a power in its own right with a string of international hits before calling it quits with an epic farewell concert in San Francisco in 1976, The Last Waltz, filmed by director Martin Scorsese.

Manuel, who was born in Stratford, Ont., committed suicide in Florida in 1986. Danko, from Simcoe, Ont., died of drug-related heart failure in 1999.

Helm, who grew up on an Arkansas farm and developed a passion for ensemble blues bands and Appalachian ballads at an early age, sang lead vocals and played mandolin on many of The Band’s best-loved songs.

He was “genuinely humble about his contributions to their body of work,” said Linden.

“He always served the emotion of the song, whatever style it was. He was an exceptional interpreter, and gave every song its heart and soul. I have met very few players who were so completely, so naturally musical as Levon. He was very open-minded, and never saw the difference between one kind of music and another.”

Helm also developed a sideline career as an actor in movies, with memorable roles in Coal Miner’s Daughter, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, The Right Stuff and In the Electric Mist, among others.

In recent years appearances by Helm’s Midnight Ramble band (which included daughter Amy on guitar) had grown from folksy, family jamborees to must-see, high-ticket concerts featuring a who’s who of guest artists, including Hudson, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Dr. John and many more.

“He was well into his fourth career and at the top of his game,” said Wilkins. “It’s the best time to begin the next adventure.”

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